The construction of the UNSS Leif Erikson went faster than they had predicted. After less than four months of training, the crew were informed they would be going into orbit for their shipboard training.
Leon sat on the edge of his bed in the small housing structure underneath the main facility. While they had not left Area 51 for the entirety of their stay, they had been able to go outside into the training and recreational facilities whenever they had desired. Leon had used the time to get to know a few of the crew better, in specific, Samuel and Chad. They were both younger men who had valuable skills and good attitudes. Leon had struck up friendships with the two rather quickly and had trained with them a multitude of times over the last few months.
The training had been tough, not very physically demanding, but it had taxed the mental and psychological capacity of them all to their limits. No one had broken however, they were tough. Researchers and military veterans, they were used to this kind of stress and more. The Director had picked a good team as they all seemed to get along rather well. There were a couple people that were less excited among them though, Chris came to his mind as he thought about it. But he was nevertheless dedicated to the work and would still be incredibly valuable in the mission they were about to embark upon.
Leon stood as he finished packing his worn duffle bag. Walking to the door, he glanced back at his temporary home and sighed. It's not as though he was going to miss the place, it was an underground warren after all, but there was a certain nostalgia he felt when looking at the pale blue walls and white ceilings.
Without another thought he nodded to himself and turned back to the door, stepping through into the painted concrete tunnel that made up the main road, he started walking towards the nearest surface exit. He cast his gaze around and took in the sights one last time as he moved through the underground maze. There was the dingy bar that would serve the off-duty crew members after a long day of study and training. There was the small supermarket that sold all the snacks and treats one might wish for.
He stepped to the side of the road as he heard the grumbling hum of a transport making its way towards him. He watched as the large industrial yellow vehicle trundled past, its cargo bed stacked with boxes and crates. He continued to watch as it rounded a nearby corner and vanished out of sight.
There were hundreds of the things moving cargo and supplies through the underground city at all times of the day or night. One night he had almost been squashed by one of the vehicles as it rounded a corner without slowing. The driver had just blasted their horn and continued as if nothing had happened leaving Leon a little angry and shaken.
Since that encounter, he had paid special attention to the distinct rumbling noise the large electric transports made as they ground along. A few times he had narrowly avoided being struck by one as it made a particularly tight turn. Still, there were many other hazards associated with being housed in what was possibly one of the highest security facilities on the globe, in Europe for sure.
Leon began walking again as his thoughts returned to the message he had awoken to. It had spoken to him in a synthetic monotone "All UNSS Leif Erikson crew are to report to hangar eleven by 0800. Failure to comply may result in disciplinary actions up to or including, suspension from the Project. Thank you and have a nice day."
Leon had laughed as the machine told him to have a nice day and had immediately begun to pack and prepare. It was a little early, but he had decided it would not do to risk being late for an unforeseen reason. Leon had always been trained to be punctual, and this was certainly no exception.
The hum of the artificial lighting was a dull background that infused his mind as he walked. It dulled the senses and ushered in a feeling of mindlessness. Leon shook his head slightly to clear it and tried to think about the upcoming flight.
He had never been to space before. The cost of an orbital flight on a point-to-point rocket was drastically lower than it had been in the past, but it was still an expensive venture. But this wasn't a suborbital jaunt, this was a direct high orbital transfer flight. Leon smiled at the idea of finally going to space. What would it be like the first time he saw the great blue jewel of the planet turning below him like a toy ball, would it be the life changing experience he had always been told it was? He hoped so.
Leon’s journey finally ended as he arrived at one of the many elevators that reached to the surface of the underground city, he boarded the platform and pressed in the security code for the ground floor. The large elevator was painted with black and yellow chevrons indicating it as a loading lift, Leon didn't mind, it would take him where he needed to go regardless of its function.
The slow whirr of the platform rising slowly up the deep elevator shaft resonated in his mind as he neared his destination. With a final lurch and the sound of creaking cables Leon arrived at the surface. He stepped off the lift and into the large loading dock that served as an indoor training ground and hangar. Leon checked his watch and then glanced around, he didn't immediately see anyone else, but that might have been because he was so early.
He walked to a nearby stack of crates and sat on a small pile of aluminum boxes he found. The large hangar was tall and wide, looking more like the inside of a vast warehouse than a cutting-edge facility. But as he had learned from Samuel over the last few months, this was the birthplace of several of the most innovative and powerful inventions in recent avionics history. The perfection of the thermal reduction plating that was used on most commercial space planes was developed in a room just like this.
The lights hanging low from the massive steel girders that made up the ceiling cast a harsh light over the interior of the hanger, eliminating shadows and giving things a strange flat look. Leon watched with interest as a large black coated aircraft was towed into the hanger and then wheeled out of sight. The interior was busy, there seemed to be a myriad of projects going on simultaneously in just this hanger alone.
Leon watched for another few minutes before he heard someone call his name.
"Oi! Leon! Over here friend!" A voice called to him from across the hanger.
Leon stood with his pack and searched for the source of the call, after a moment he saw Samuel waving to him from next to a small stack of metal plates. Leon waved back and walked over to the man, careful to avoid the numerous cables and pipes along the floor on the edges of the hanger. Reaching a comfortable talking distance, he greeted Samuel by saying "Well hallo right back friend. Am I to assume you have been looking over our transport?"
Samuel grinned and said "You're damn right I have, can't trust these lazy federal workers to do the job properly ya know?" The man joked.
Leon smiled and joined the man as he walked towards the large open bay doors of the hanger room.
Samuel continued to talk as they navigated through the mess of crates and machinery that lined the walkways "She has a name ya know, it's rude to refer to her as 'the transport'. What if she gets mad and refuses to cooperate?"
"You know that the shuttle isn't a living thing right Samuel?" Leon said teasingly.
Samuel looked at him aghast and cried out "How dare you say that about Linda? She is just as much a part of this mission as you and me, and in my opinion, much better looking." He finished with a raised eyebrow.
Leon scoffed and let out a small chuckle as he retorted "Better looking than you? That's not much of a benchmark."
Samuel tried to put on a hurt expression as he replied "You cut deep with those words. I'm not sure I want to let you touch Linda, you obviously don't appreciate her like I do."
Leon smiled widely at Samuel's attempt to look hurt. After a few seconds the smaller man broke out in a laugh and then gave Leon a friendly punch on the shoulder. Leon ignored the man and turned his attention to the sight being revealed before him as the two of them finally exited the hangar and reached the large concrete pad attached to the airstrip.
His vision was met with a work of engineering that rivaled anything before built by man. The vessel was long and sleek, with wide flaring wings that turned up on the points to better maneuver at hypersonic speeds. The body of the craft was rounded, but not a simple shape. It was like a series of convex surfaces attached to each other that were designed to mitigate sonic shockwaves from disrupting the craft in its orbital descent. Its rear was a bundle of huge engines designed to do the bulk of the lifting after the craft became airborne. The vessel also had a pair of powerful air breathing engines that could be used to get it to high altitude before it fired its main engines. The cockpit was situated high and towards the nose of the craft, its small, armored windows looking comically small on the large beasts bulk. It sat on the ground on a set of heavy-duty landing gear, the tires a hexicomb of durable material so as to minimize the chances of flats.
If there was no suitable runway on which to land, the craft was capable of very minimal vertical take off ability. It would be hard pressed to gain much more than a few dozen meters of altitude on its VTOL engines, but they sufficed for dangerous landings on cramped terrain.
The ship was coated in a brilliant white paint that was supposedly able to not only withstand the terrific heat of an orbital reentry, but also reflect the vast majority of interstellar radiation that might otherwise harm the crew and passengers. It was already in use on several of the outlying space stations that the UN operated, and had proved capable of reducing the low energy interstellar radiation by almost ninety percent. The high energy cosmic rays could still pose an issue, but the interior coating of a special polymer that was composed of nearly twenty percent hydrogen by weight was there to absorb the stray particles that made it through.
Looking at the shuttle in person for the first time up close, Leon couldn't help but be struck with the power and complexity of the design. He turned to Samuel and said "I see why you like her. What a beautiful ship."
Samuel nodded his head and said "Come on around the side, the cargo ramp is down. This is the passenger variant of the shuttle, the other two are the heavy cargo variants. But this one has the seats to take everyone up to the Leif Erikson all at once, which is good because it's expensive to fly up to high earth orbit."
He followed Samuel around to the front of the shuttle and saw a ramp extended down the side. The ramp was two meters wide and looked strong enough to drive a truck up, which might have been its original purpose he realised. Leon walked up the ramp and onto the ship itself and once more marveled at the care that had obviously been put into its design.
The interior was a cool, calming sky blue while the seats were grey and padded, holding the restraints for the passengers and crew. Leon did a quick glance around and saw the shuttle had the seating space for two dozen people, with the six seats in the main cockpit, that meant a grand total of thirty passengers and crew could be transported at one time as well as some cargo.
Leon stood still for a moment longer before he was jolted back to the moment by Samuel. He asked Leon “So Commander, want to see the cockpit?"
Leon smiled and set his old duffle bag down on a nearby seat before answering "Yes of course. This is your baby after all. From what you have told me and the little I've heard, you had a significant amount of input into its design right?"
Samuel nodded proudly as he opened the small airlock that separated the main hold from the cabin. "That's mostly true, I did have a lot of input into its flight characteristics and aerodynamics, but all the rocket science was done by the truly great minds further down." He said in reference to the fact that the most secret projects were taking place deeper underground.
He followed Samuel into the airlock and waited as it cycled. "That seems handy." He remarked.
Samuel grinned and said, "While it is standard procedure to operate the shuttles while in full vacuum gear, it's entirely possible to wear normal clothes in the cockpit because it remains separately pressurized."
Leon nodded at the remark as the airlock finished and then opened, revealing the somewhat spacious cockpit. He looked to the left and right, taking it all in. "This feels more like the inside of a small boat rather than a shuttle." He remarked as he saw the small accommodations and cooking area near the airlock.
Samuel smiled again and said "Ah yes, now that is one of my better ideas. Imagine you are on a long mission, while it is prudent to keep the pressure suits on, the ability to get up and move around, even in zero g, is a luxury. You will notice the microgravity hammocks and toilet, as well as that small convection heater there." Samuel said, pointing at the small contraption. "They are all configurable to both zero g and standard environments. That way, we didn't need to design them twice."
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Leon nodded in understanding. If they were to pilot the shuttle down to a planet, it would make sense to be able to use it as a base of operations for the duration of the stay.
He and Samuel walked down a short passage that led to the cockpit proper. Leon whistled appreciatively at the sheer amount of buttons, dials, readouts, and switches. "That's a lot of buttons… they all for flying?"
Samuel nodded absently and said "More or less. There are a few for other things like rerouting power for survival mode and turning on the floodlights. But the vast majority of the control panel is dedicated towards making sure this baby reaches her destined target in full working order."
Leon watched the younger man as he began to point out various controls and explained their function. Leon was a military man, used to absorbing information that might come in handy later. Yet the sheer number and variety of controls quickly confused and overwhelmed his mind. It seemed like there were backups to everything and then even backups to some of the previous backups. Redundancy seemed to be built into the very fabric of the ship, and judging by the fact it was supposed to be a rugged, reusable shuttle, it made a lot of sense.
"I suppose a lot of this is to make maintenance less of an issue while we are on mission right?" Leon remarked.
"That's the general idea, yeah. We are going to be thousands of years from help if anything goes wrong. To be sure we won't get stranded, we should have enough spare parts to build a whole new shuttle." Samuel told him while fiddling with a set of dials.
Leon simply nodded. He pointed at the six seats spaced around the front with two to the sides "So who normally sits there?"
Samuel said "Well, you would have your pilots, your engineer, and maybe a communications specialist. The other two would largely depend on the nature of the mission being undertaken."
Leon heard a small noise coming from the open bay behind him and turned, Samuel stood from the control area and walked towards the entryway. Leon followed and made out a voice as he exited the airlock.
"Hey, anyone up there? Can I come up?" A voice called to them.
Leon looked at Samuel and shrugged as the younger man turned and shouted back "Sure, come on in."
After a moment, Chad walked up the ramp with a suitcase in tow. "Hey guys, you're both here a bit early. Didn't want to miss out huh?"
Samuel smiled and said "Yeah, it would be kind of awkward if the ship took off without its pilot."
Leon chuckled at that and held out his hand towards Chad who took it and gave it a quick shake. Setting his bag down, Chad turned and looked around the passenger compartment before looking at Samuel and asking "So this looks nice. When do we get going?"
"Hopefully as soon as everyone else arrives. Then it's a long ten hours to rendezvous with the Leif Erikson's space dock." Samuel told Chad.
Leon watched as Chad groaned and asked "What, ten hours? Aww this is going to be a long trip. Please tell me this thing has a bathroom at least."
Samuel grimaced slightly before he answered "Yes she does. And yes this will be a long trip, longer if you think too hard about it."
Leon walked towards his bag as the two continued to bicker quietly, they had developed a bit of a rivalry during the months they had been training together. Nothing serious, more like the bickering of two siblings.
Sitting down and putting his old duffle in the wall storage webbing behind the seat, he pulled out his small personal computer and pulled up an Ebook.
After reading a few chapters, he was interrupted by someone sitting down next to him. Leon closed the program and looked up from his device to see Sabine sitting next to him.
"What are you reading?" She asked him in a cheerful tone.
Leon leaned back in his seat and told her "I'm just reading up on some historical accounts of the first Mars landings. Seeing as how we are about to embark on something just as seemingly impossible, I thought it prudent to brush up on my historical quotes and such." He saw her scrunch her eyebrows at him.
"That's such an old person thing to do. You're so old." She said teasingly.
Leon gasped and grabbed his chest before he laughed as Sabine looked at him shocked.
"That's not funny." She said after a few moments, scowling.
Leon said, "Sure it was."
Sabine sighed and leaned back a bit, after a moment she said quietly "Do you think we will ever come back?"
Leon looked into the middle distance and thought hard for a few moments. The mission was a long one, on an experimental ship. Sure they should have all the basic supplies they needed for the trip, but a small part of him was still worried. They would be leaving the solar system, everything their whole race had ever known, behind. This would be more than just a blind jump like the first space missions, but they wouldn't be much farther off.
Looking at her he smiled and replied calmly "Sure, there is no reason to suspect we won't."
He saw another person enter the shuttle out of the corner of his eye, it was Dr. Kimathi. Leon waved to her and Sabine looked over to see who he was waving to. Dr. Kimathi looked and raised a single hand in greeting before she walked to the end of the other wall and set down her gear. She had been wearing a backpack and carrying a shapeless bag.
Sabine said to him "I wonder if we are really going to need a doctor, if we do that means something has gone pretty wrong."
Leon nodded and agreed saying "That's true, but that's not the only thing she will be doing. She is also going to be working with Joice and Oliver, one of the Biologists and our Biochemist. That way there will always be a medical perspective on any potential discoveries."
Sabine looked over at Dr. Kimathi for a moment before she spoke. "That makes sense. But I still hope she spends the majority of the trip bored."
Leon nodded to himself slightly as he turned to look back down the bit of the ramp he could see. He watched as more of the crew began to show up, checking his watch, he saw it was nearing noon. After a short while, the crew was all there with the exception of Chris.
Craning his head, he looked around the shuttle. He didn't see him and began to worry. Standing up, Leon walked over to where Samuel was standing.
"I don't see Chris anywhere. Were we missing anyone else?" He asked the younger man.
Samuel looked around and said "I don't see the director either. He usually shows up on time though."
Leon said "Well, they got another six minutes or so. I suppose they might be cutting it close."
"That tends to be my experience with him." Samuel said under his breath.
Leon and Samuel stood near the top of the ramp silently. Leon looked through to the gray concrete pad below. The smell of oil and fuel wafted into the crew compartment on a slight breeze and the distant sounds of work made their way into the compartment. About a minute before the scheduled launch time Leon saw two figures approaching the ramp.
They walked to the bottom of the ramp and as they began to climb, Leon saw it was indeed the Director and Chris. Leon smiled and asked "Chris, you cut that a little close. Part of me was worried you wouldn't show up."
Chris huffed and stated "I almost didn't. But the Director found me and talked me into it." He said without elaborating as he moved off to find a seat.
Leon looked at the Director who simply gazed back emotionlessly and then shrugged. Samuel grunted quietly as he walked away and then looked at Leon.
"He seems to be in a great mood today. Might even engage in conversation if you tried hard enough." He said.
Leon just nodded and said "He looks a bit stressed if you ask me…"
The two of them shared another look before Samuel walked towards the cockpit and Leon moved off towards his seat. As he sat down he settled back in for the flight as the other occupants put their stuff away. Leon pulled his personal computer back out and opened the library program from before. Sabine was talking to Chad who was sitting on her other side and Leon was at the end of their row.
The Director walked to the front of the shuttle and addressed them all at once "Alright, I thank you for being here, this mission is important, possibly the most important thing you could ever do. This journey won't be easy, but it will be worth it. Gird yourselves with determination and prepare your hearts for hardship. You will be leaving the known and entering the unknown, traveling along paths unseen by man. We will be leaving earth's embrace soon." He finished before sitting down.
The ramp began to raise up into the shuttle and the door sealed. The engines made the shuttle vibrate subtly as they spooled up, the shuttle had hybridized turbo-ram engines as well as vacuum optimized thrusters.
Leon looked towards the small porthole window near his seat as they began to move. Placing his device in his pocket, he watched as the distant trees slid past faster and faster as they picked up speed. After a moment there was a jolt as they went airborne. The turbojet engines pushed them higher and faster until they passed the sound barrier.
As they began to move supersonic, the engines transitioned to ramjets and they inclined slightly as they climbed into ever thinner air. After the shuttle reached a speed of almost Mach four, the main engines to the rear kicked on and they inclined sharply towards space. The shuttle vibrated and shook slightly as they left the atmosphere and the main engines kicked off in favor of the larger vacuum optimized engines.
Leon looked out the small window as the gravity began to decrease and his restraints held him to the bench. His breath caught as he witnessed the earth in all its majesty laid out below him. He jolted against his restraints as he tried to turn to get a better look. The others in the shuttle were in similar situations as a voice came over the intercom.
"This is your captain speaking, you may leave your restraints as long as you make sure to be responsible. We are in microgravity so you should be careful." Samuel's voice came over the comms.
Leon undid his restraints as the strange sensation of falling came over him. He ignored it as he pulled himself over to the small window and looked out. There was the entirety of Europe arrayed below him. He could see Germany below, the bright green of the tropical belts evident even from this distance.
His eyes opened in awe at the beauty of the horizon, the faint blue line fading to black, the shimmering of the atmosphere cast strange flickering twinkles from the stars behind. After a few minutes watching the spectacle, he moved back to his seat.
Sabine floated over and pulled herself down towards him asking "So, your first time into space, how is it?"
Leon wiggled a bit as he strapped himself back down before he answered. "It's strange, not like anything I have experienced before. The training we did prepared me for the physical effects, but the view. That, that was something else." He said with a bit of wonder in his voice.
Sabine nodded to him and moved off once more. Leon watched her go and contented himself to pull out his personal computer and opened it back up to the book he had been reading before. It was a historical account of the first spaceflights, moon landings, mars landings, and early colonies on the other worlds. It discussed the future possibility of colonizing other worlds.
Pulling up the book he had been reading, he dived back into it.
Several hours passed before Leon felt a tap on his arm. Leon looked up and saw Sabine was gone, instead Chris had leaned across the intervening space to tap on his arm.
"That was something else huh? Did you see that meteor that fell right over Egypt?" Chris asked him.
Leon shook his head and said "No sorry, I was reading. How close are we?" He asked while checking his watch.
"We should be less than an hour from the rendezvous. We are at the proper altitude now, we just need to match orbital velocity. Looking out the window you might be able to see the Leif Erikson soon." Chris said excitedly.
Leon looked out the side window but only saw the endless starry expanse of space, the earth was out of sight on the underside of the shuttle. Leon continued to watch out the window for a moment before he heard the airlock cycle. He saw Samuel poke through and after a moment he beckoned to Leon. Leon gave him a look and then unstrapped himself. He pushed off the seat carefully like he had been trained to do and slowly drifted over the upper wall handholds towards the small airlock.
He reached Samuel and asked him "What is it, what happened?"
Samuel shook his head and popped back into the airlock motioning for him to follow. Leon followed him after a few moments and as the door closed Samuel spoke "I wanted you to see the final approach. But I didn't want a huge flood of people coming with you."
Leon smiled "Well gee thanks I guess." He waited for the inner airlock to open before drifting in after Samuel. He looked out through the much broader window at the front of the control center and took a seat in one of the four forward control seats.
Samuel wasn't alone in the cockpit, there were two others with him, one was Taylor, the communications specialist. The other was a shorter woman with blond hair and a wiry stature. Looking at her he said "Hello again Terry, it's good to see you."
Terry nodded politely and turned back to her control panel. Leon shrugged, she wasn't much of a talker he had found. As he had watched, he saw the faintest pinprick of light sparkling out in the void ahead of them. He watched as it slowly grew into the outline of a station.
The expansive steel girders flashed in the cold darkness of space and the shadows they cast were cruel and sharp. Leon could just make out the shape of the ship under the extensive collection of supports and structure. The large white shape of the ship itself was revealed as they drew ever nearer. The alabaster behemoth dwarfed the shuttle as they approached to within a few kilometers.
Leon marveled at the construction and engineering evident in the design of the ship, the six massive rings that would be spun on their magnetic bearings sat motionless in the cradle of its spacedock.
Leon turned to look at Samuel who was grinning hugely. "It's magnificent." Leon said.
"Yes." Samuel said with a chuckle. "Yes it is."